Your Quick inspection guidelines for buying a used V-20

Here's the scenario. You see a V-20 sitting on the side of the road or behind someone's barn and it's for sale. you need to perform a quick inspection to see what you have. what do you look for? where are the problems? how best to tell if transom is bad from a quick roadside inspection. Thanks for any wisdom shared.

[draglink]

I have a quick 2 step process that I do, if it passes then I dig around a little more. FIRST I check the transom- hop up and down on the lower skeg of the motor and look for flex in the transom. If motor is up then ush down on the lower unit to see flex. If no motor then its tricky, really all you can do is tap around witha hammer or handle end of a scew driver and listen for hollow sounds= not good. If there are screw in transom, unscrew and watch for water. Second I do baby steps over entire floor to check for soft spots. If these 2 things pass, then I start looking under hatches, console etc

[reelapeelin]

Drag's got most of my tests down already...if has a motor and will tilt up, apply your body weight to the foot and listen...noisy crackling or silence...guess which is a bad thing...walk ALL OVER all decks including the foredeck ahead of the windshield...I like Drags idea of backing out a couple of screws in the transom..watch for tea-colored water escaping...pull all floor hatches, visually inspect w/a flashlight...try to get to the stringers and jamb them w/a screwdriver...if you punch thru, then problems...feels hard...good thing...get UNDER the hull...look at the keel front to back...good luck and let us now what you do...

If it passes all my and Drag's test, WET TEST it if you can...

[willy]

Look for cracks along the bulkhead which is the wall you step thru going into the cuddy, cracks running along that floor wall seam and out from it are not good.Minor small or thin ones are not a big problem, yet, but a sign of something coming. Maybe years down the road. Cracks that run all along and especially radiating out are a sign that the bulkhead is rotted out. I found two or three of those while I was shopping, also sit in the helm seat and rock back and forth and look for the floor flexing a lot there.
Soft spot in the cover over the gas tank is common due to cheap construction and support there by Wellcraft and a fairly easy repair.